Queen Relaxing
25 x 29 x 20 cm; 10 x 11 x 8 in
If Henry Moore is best known for his abstract monumental bronzes which can be seen in many places around the world as public works of art, Prodosh Dasgupta played with Moore?s solidity and used fleshed out human forms to create works that reflected the expression of being. His subjects were usually abstractions of the human figure, typically mother-and-child or reclining figures. Interestingly, apart from a flirtation with a few works as pairs, the subject was nearly always a woman. Characteristically, Dasgupta?s figures are stolid and marvellosuly rounded to give an element of gravitas amidst the play of the rounded contour. Many interpret the undulating form of his reclining figures as references to the everyday symbolism of Indianesque idoms. ?Queen Relaxing? has about it a certain mystery and should make demands on the spectator. Giving a sculpture or a drawing too explicit a title takes away part of that mystery so that the spectator moves on to the next object, making no effort to ponder the meaning of what he has just seen.